The Milk of Paradise: The Effects of Opium Visions on the Works of De Quincey, Crabbe, Francis Thompson, and Coleridge

M.H. Abrams's The Milk of Paradise examines how opium-induced visions influenced the writings of Thomas De Quincey, George Crabbe, Francis Thompson, and Samuel Taylor Coleridge. The book explores the subjective experiences of these authors, particularly De Quincey's Confessions of an English Opium-Eater, which detailed both the euphoric and nightmarish aspects of addiction. Abrams analyzes how these altered states of consciousness, characterized by symbolic and imaginative reveries, found expression in their literary works, contributing to the Romantic sensibility.12